As I first reported Friday night, Bee Movie (Dreamworks) will win the Veterans Day weekend at the box office switching places with last weekend’s winner American Gangster (Universal). Jerry Seinfeld’s “pet project” swooped in for $11.67M on Saturday, and, with about half of America’s school-age kids off on Monday, Sunday will stronger than usual. I’ve penciled in an estimated 26% drop, which will earn Bee $26.58M on its 2nd weekend.

Bee Movie’s domestic cume will be $72.79M at the end of the weekend, which gives it the 7th-best gross for a Dreamworks animated film after 10 days of release. Jeff and Jerry’s “honey pot” will have likely posted the all-time 21st-best 10-day gross in the history of animation.

American Gangster surged 42% Friday-to-Saturday for a strong $10.25M. That should translate to a 3-day of $24.23M, an excellent hold from its opening weekend. With $80.59M in the bank by Monday morning, Gangster moves into the all-time 10-day performers among R-rated movies.

Of the weekend’s new releases, The Coen brothers have made the strongest impression as Joel and Ethan have blown away the specialty marketplace with No Country For Old Men (Miramax). With just 28 locations, the Javier Bardem-Tommy Lee Jones-Josh Brolin thriller has scored a $1.2M weekend for a 3-day PTA of $43,000+. That easily becomes the all-time best opening weekend PTA for a Coen brothers movie. ALL-TIME TOP OPENING WEEKEND PER THEATRE AVERAGES FOR A COEN BROTHERS MOVIE 1. No Country for Old Men – $43,056 PTA (estimate) 2. O Brother, Where Art Thou – $39,000 PTA 3. Fargo – $20,285 PTA 4. The Man Who Wasn’t There – $17,036 PTA 5. The Ladykillers – $7,981 PTA 6. Intolerable Cruelty – $4,884 PTA 7. The Big Lebowski – $4,584 PTA

The 3 new wide releases are all major disappointments. Fred Claus (Warner Bros) will finish the weekend with only $18.66M, a huge miss for analysts forecasting a possible $30M. Summit Entertainment’s first movie P2, is unlikely to even break $2M. But, the worst news is reserved for Tom Cruise.